Books and materials: Junior High sight-singing materials

Thanks for your collective wisdom. As a first-time inquirer, I amamazed. So many people requested the information, I'm sending acompilaton out to all.

I have found "Music For Sight-Singing" by Robert W. Ottman, published byPrentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J 07632, to be very helpful. It canbe used and adapted for any level.

M. Gabrielle Ludwig, Ph.D.City of Zion MusicClovis, CA__________________________________________________________I use the Jenson Sight Singing method books with my Intermediate Schoolchoirs. I have perused many methods and have found this to be the bestso far. I like that it has many, many examples which move by step andkeep the rhythms simple. New concepts are gradually introduced. I useit on a daily basis and my students view it as part of our warm-upprocedure.

Good luck!Lisa Yozviak__________________________________________________________Dear Marcia,I am so spoiled--I teach at a Waldorf School, where the children learnlyre, recorder and violin and part-singing starting in grade 2, and I'venever had to teach much sight-singing to my 5th through 8th graders. When I ask them about the music we're singing, they are usually able totell me the key and meter, etc. They read quite well, though notflawlessly (Some rhythmic figures throw them, such as in Song for theMira which has a lot of syncopations) I guess the secret is to startearly. Two additional repertory ideas: Away from the Roll of the Seaand Crocodile Rock have been fabulously successful with my kidsl.Best of luck to you, aloha,Tim

I am the choral director at Anoka High School in Minnesota. After manyyears of looking for the same thing in a sight reading program, I wrotemy own, marketed it and the manual is currently being used in over 500schools in 35 states across the nation.

I teach sol-feg but my manual works with whatever you choose to use -numbers, neutral syllables - or sol feg. The book is broken into 10levels, each of which is progressively more difficult. Each levelcontains at least 80 four to eight measure exercises that the studentscan read quickly. I spend 5-7 minutes every day sight reading and Icannot tell you the benefits as it has cut down my part pounding time inrehearsal to where I can go into the music more.

The book sells for $90 and that gives you permission to reproduce anyandall the pages for your school so it is basically a one time purchase. Icomes in a three ring binder so you can easily remove the pages forreproduction. Here is the breakdown.

Level 1: all quarter notes - designed to teach rise and fall of melodicline. some easy intervals.

Level 2: All rhythmic

Level 3: combination of rhythms and easy melodis lines. So far,everything is in the key of C.

Level 4: The addition of accidentals.

Level 5: All different keys - no accidentals.

Level 6: All keys - accidentals

Level 7: bass clef

Level 8: Two part - Some SA, some SB

Level 9: Three part - Some SSA and Some SAB

Level 10: Four part.

If you are interested, let me know and I can give you more information.

Bruce PhelpsChoral DirectorAnoka High SchoolAnoka, MN ________________________________________________________Sight singing at the Jr. High level is an excellent way to develop yourprogram! I recommend using the Oxford Sightsinging series. The seriesranges in difficulty not only in pitch comprehension but musicality, andrhythm. The series also uses somewhat familiar "classical" melodies atvarious stages of learning. And unlike this message, the melodies areSHORT!

As for techniques, I recommend when teaching sightsinging, solfege basedon moveable "do" to begin. At the middle school level this keeps kidsontheir toes. This also helps develop the reading of music and its keysand will allow you to increase the difficulty of music in yourprogramming.

Here is how I teach sightsinging using solfege....once the generalconcept of pitch/syllable relationships are demonstrated. Sorry its solong winded,but it only takes about 7-10 minutes a day...AND WHAT ADIFFERENCE!

Good luck!

Bradford Kinch,JMBC Children's Choir

DAILY LESSON ONE:(2 minutes)

Objective; This is a great lesson to get students watching you whiledeveloping aural pitch relationships.

1. Using a chalkboard with a staff and pure note scale, create a keysignature.

2. Have students establish the key. Box the Tonic and circle theDominant, or if teaching syllables, you may choose also to write themoutdepending on the grade level.

3. Create a tonality. You can use major or minor as you determine theneeds of your students.

4. Use your hands and point to various notes in the scale, startingwiththe tonic, subdominant and dominant triad structures. Vary tempo,rhythmand pitch.

DAILY LESSON TWO:(5 minutes)Objective: Success of this lesson depends on developing individualityamong students in a team setting. There is a lot of trust being builtwith this little exercise....

1. Establish a routine. Using individuals, find the Key, Tonality, andgeneral direction of the music being looked at, e.g. What's the Key? Isit Major or minor? What about dynamics?

2 Have students place a box around the tonic and circle the dominant[box your dos and circle your sols:-)]. Or, have them start the firstline or two by writing every syllable in an abbreviated form.

4. Have everyone sight read the same exercise together one time throughwhile observing steady, slow to medium, rhythm and all dynamics.

5. Then, with no rhythmic break, choose a small group (or individuals)to continue the exercise by singing two or three measures. Choose a newgroup/individual to continue the next part of the exercise while keepingthe same rhythm.

This lesson keeps the kids on their toes too because they must bementally prepared and following along so they may pick up where theirpeers leave off with only a call of their name (in rhythm of course)fromyou.

There will be uneasiness with lesson 2. Encourage teamwork by havingthechoir join the individual and help when there is a mistake. Finish upthe exercise having everyone sing the lesson._____________________________________________________Marcia, I'm a choral director in Amarillo,TX--12 yrs in middle schoolandnow four in high school. Choral music is a big deal here in Texas. Weeven have to compete in sightreading contests every year. I think it isthe backbone of a successful choral organization, and you will reap thebenefits for years to come.

At my school we start the year doing unison sightreading out ofthe Oxford books or the Appleby books; varsity choir uses Oxford Vol IV,and beginners use Appleby and Oxford vol. 1. The choir reads at least20mins almost every day using these unison exercises. We testindividuallytwice every 6 wks. We target 5 to 8 exercises for which the student isresponsible to learn, then on test day each student sings live for ateacher. The teacher picks one of the targeted exercises for thestudents to sing. This is more in the nature of ear training than truesightreading. The point is to use these exercises to input intervalslike tonic chord, la-fa, me-la, fa-re -- ascending and descending, intothe tonal memory. Students are required to sing these exercises usingsolfege syllables and hand signs. We also learn our regular concertreportoire on solfege. Students are required to sing these exercisesusing solfege syllables and hand signs. We also learn our regularconcert repertoire on solfege. Students write the solfege syllable overevery note in their voice part, and we NEVER sing the words until it iscorrectly done on syllables.

In the second semester we do corporate sightreading. We use alot of Southern Music Publishing Texas UIL Sightreading contest piecesfrom previous years as material, and hymnals, and easier Bach choralesfor the varsity choir. All together we chant our part in solfege and dothe hand signs, then I give the tonic chord, each section sings thebeginning pitch, I give a preperatory measure, and we sing the piecetwice.

I guarantee you it will work over time. Kids may gripe and moan,but they are musicians by the end of it all.

Sorry this is so long, but sightreading is a real passion ofmine. singing is something you can enjoy all your life.

Good luck!

Susan HinrichsAmarillo High SchoolAmarillo, TX______________________________________________________Marcia: Kodaly's materials are designed to do exactly that, and work atany appropriate age level. They also use real music as early aspossible, and if he did make up any exercises, well, he was a first-ratecomposer! I don't know exactly which books to recommend, but most orallaf this stuff is published by Boosey and Hawkes. Find an experiencedKodaly person to ask.

JohnJohn & Susie HowellVirginia Tech Department of MusicBlacksburg, Virginig, U.S.A. 24061-0240_______________________________________________________Marcia, there are various methods which have been successful for juniorhigh students in grades 6-9. I think you would be well advised to golook through the bins at your favorite music dealer's store, in additionto asking for advice on the internet. There are series which range fromunison to SSA and four part mixed, and they can all be useful in theright situation. Incidentally, knowing music theory is not the same asbeing able to read music. Reading music is like reading language inthatyou must do a lot of practicing. Being able to recite the alphabet isnot the same thing, and is not necessarily a prerequisite for success.

Best wishes for your success. I have always thought that teachingpeopleto read music was a great deal more important than teaching them"fifteentenor parts." I retired in 1993 with thirty years of teachingexperience, mostly in grades 6-10, and I always loved the feeling I gotwhen my students learned to read music well.

Ann A. Buchanan, retired choral director, Brownsville Schools,Brownsville,Texas____________________________________________________________I have found the Jenson very useful. I use it in a different settingthan most, however. I have a Jr. High Girls Choir and a Jr. High Boy'schoir. It uses sofeggio to introduce key signatures, and doesn't evenintroduce clefs until later on in the book (which eliminates theintimidation factor of learning the opposite clef than the studentslearnwith any instrument they may play.) It is a very effective book with ateacher's edition that I highly recommend.

Garret W. LatheDirector of Choral ActivitiesStaples Motley SchoolsStaples, MN_____________________________________________________________Dear Marcia,I am a High Chool/Middle School/Elementary/Church/Community Choirteacher/director in Texas. There are many good books out there. Thetexts I currently use are:Patterns of Sound, Jenson Publications 40216092; this is my beginningtext. I insist that the students use the Curwen/Kodaly hand-signs withmoveable do.The Sight-Singer, CPP Belwin 2915601282; this is one of my secondtexts--must use hand signs.Songs For Sight Singing, Southern Music Company; this is one of mysecond texts. It is available in 2 part, SAB, TTB, SATB-- handsigns!Pepper Music 1-800-345-6292 will let you order to review.The Jesen series is also a good one that I have used. I don't think itmatters which texts you use; it as about goal setting (we will be herebyChristmas), consistancy (Yes, today will be a study hall day, after wedoour vocaleses and SIGHT-READING), and encouragement (You're doing sogood, much better than my studentsat XYZ. I am really encouraged byyourprogress and proud of you! Don't quit, you're doing fine!) My studentshave proven time and again that the handsigns and movable do work, (andthe opposite, no handsigns, skill development not as good). I block out10-15 minutes each day to do this. Please don't give up, and don't letthe students give up. Some will master the basics in a year, othersdon't "get it" till their third year in choir. Don't "help" with thepiano. Do as much as you can acapella. My students that meet every dayprogress so much faster than those only every other day block schedule. Currently my Middle School students can sight-sing rings around my highschool because they meet 5 days a week. My high school students, onalternating block, where because of special events sometimes have 5 daysin between rehearsal, have learned much slower, and in fact are moreresistant to this activity- they haven't seen the fruit of it yet. Theephiphany point, when a student realizes they can do this, is when theirskills really accelerate. It's really fun to be a part of when thathappened. At one high school were I started a new program, in the thirdyear on a trip back from contest (Texas UL) we had our sight-readingbooks with us (Songs for Sight-Singing) and my student, without anyprompting or directing started sight-singing from the book for fun. Itwas quite exciting! The fruit was born, the students from that pointquitgriping about sight-reading.Hope this helps, you may never get positive feedback from your students. It is a skill they will enjoy all their life.Respectfully,Glenn Kueck________________________________________________________Marcia --I have used a Hal Leonard publication in their "Pattern of Sound" seriescalled "Sight-Singing for SSA" by Joyce Eilers and Emily Crocker. Ihavenot seen their SATB book, but if it's anything like the SSA, it is anexcellent progression of rhythm and melodic reading, using solfege. Order a copy of the singer's edition and the teacher's edition to checkit out.

Mary M. HoffmanDirector of Children's Music andAssistant Director of MusicPeachtree Presbyterian ChurchAtlanta, Georgia______________________________________________________I've found the essential elements series (Essential Musicianshipcomponent) from Emily Crocker and John Leavitt works well.

Just an aside

I did my choral techniques research studies at FSU on sightsinging. Dissertation research and experimentation suggests that the mosteffective way to teach sight singing is through the use of moveable dosolfege. Techniues line up as follows from the most effective to least.SoflegeSolfege with Kodaly hand signsNumbersLetter names in scaleNeutral Syllable

Todd Henry_______________________________________________________ Hi! I have used Nancy Telfer's Successful Sight Singin for the past 8orso years. I use book 1 with the 6th graders book 2 with the 7th and 8thgraders. Yesterday, one of the kids in my Youth Choir at church saidthat she was so glad that I had taught her to sight-sing, because shecound never have made it in her high school music program. The otherthing is, so many placesx are now requiring sight singing at the SeniorHonors of All-State level, that it seems silly not to really beemphasizing it at the middle school level. I love the Telfer books, andI think the teacher's editions are certainly worth the $.Martha SpringsteadChoral DirectorLarkspur Middle SchoolVirginia Beach, VA________________________________________________________________Dear Marcia -

Here at Blue Earth Area I use my own stuff in seventh grade, DickEdstrom's Independent Singer in eighth grade and the Jenson SightsingingCourse in ninth grade. In the senior high we use Bruce Phelp'sself-published system. Best of luck in your research.

Best wishes,Mike EllingsenVocal Music and DramaBlue Earth, MN_________________________________________________________________I teach jr. high choral music, too. Ugh...trying to get your kids tolearn to sightread is a chore. I've used Essential Elements as anoverall text, but I don't like it as well as the Jenson Sightsingingcourse by Bauguess for pure sightreading. but I think the Bauguess is outof print??? Not for sure. I need to call Pepper on this, but that's theone I liked the best. I did my master's research project on sightsingingmethodologies...I learned using numbers, so that's the approach I like. Bauguess uses a chart that you can easily make to show students themovemement from one scale degree to the next. I have it on the wall &use a drumstick to point to the various scale degrees. This visual aidreally hits home with my students. Start w/ stepwise movement & introduceskips. It's a matter of repetition & practitce of the intervals. Readthe Bauguess teacher's manual...it gives great suggestions for step bystep procedures to teaching sightsinging. Let me know your ideas. Thisis a constant concern for me. Good luck.Connie_________________Thanks again to all,Marcia VanCampDuluth Central High School218-733-2130x129vancamp5(a)juno.com

________________________________________________________________YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.Thank you for the responses. They were very helpful.

COMPILATION : Middle School Sightreading Materials

I like "Patterns of Sound" I believe it is by Eilers. It also has a book called "Pattern's of Performance" for more reading in parts. Shannon DennisonParis RII Schools***********************************Essential Musicianship series published Hal Leonard.

*******************************************************A lot of people swear by Nancy Telfer's series (Kjos). I used "Patterns in Sound" with some success. Bruce Phelps sells his method himself, and there's some good stuff there. It's cheap, too, because you buy a master 3-ring binder, then photocopy each lesson for your choir. So, you can easily skip lessons, write solfege in, create worksheets and tests easily, etc.: http://www.brucephelps.com/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Drew Collins

***********************************************************Patterns of Sound.

Wendy OesterlingWinchester, VA

*****************************************My favorite sight-reading method for middle and high school is the Patti DeWitt Sightreading materials. It is very sequential and moves forward in small steps. My students' musicianship has improved dramatically in the past two years since I have used this text. You can order materials on:http://www.pattidewitt.com/sightread.html

-Denise BaccadutreMoriarty High School Choral DirectorMoriarty, New Mexico

***************************************************************I am a fan of the series put out by Jensen. It is very sequential andapproachable. It operates on the intervallic principle of note reading ratherthan note-name reading. Thus it doesn't introduce clefs until later in thebook. This demonstrates to your non-musicians that it isn't required that youknow every note name to sight read, and it forces your readers to thinkintervallically rather than by note-name.

Garrett LatheSartell High School ChoirsYouth Chorale of Central Minnesotawww.youthchorale.org

************************************************************I loved the Jenson Sight Singing Course and used it for over 20 years. It is very complete and accessible to junior high/middle schoolers.

Neil Johnson

Jamie HoldrenPrinceton City SchoolsCincinnati, Ohiozjamie(a)usa.net

Malinda on February 9, 2004 10:00pm

Dear,

Who ever you are i would like to ask you where can i find Nicole C. Mullen music, because me and my friends is looking for it and doing a project about Christian music.So please help us out!

I have just finished creating and sharing every secret I've learned in teaching Sight Singing to Middle School Students in a program called S-Cubed: Successful Sight Singing for Middle School Teachers and their Students. My goal in the offering was to go from "0" to "100" in 8 months with my middle school chorus...most of whom have no background in reading music at all...and I wanted it to be fun! I needed it to be more than just a book. I needed them to be able to sight sing in 2 parts fluently with rhythms as difficult as dotted-quarter/eighth note combos and skips as wide as an octave. I needed them to be able to figure out a 2 part, 8 measure example in 5 minutes on their own in a variety of keys. These are the requirements of my state adjudicated festival. I use the method 10-15 minutes daily. It has wonderful impact on their choral literature also!

Also, I wanted it to be a 21st century offering so I have included the following:

1) YouTube Video links of me teaching the materials to my students.

2) YouTube Video Teaching Tips that are linked straight into the Power Point lessons for ease of access.

3) Progressive step by step rhythmic exercises.

4) Progressive step by step melodic exercises.

5) I included a solfege game that is the "hook" to the program.

6) Philosophical suggestions are included to help you make it fun while you teach these important skills.

I wanted it to be like something I would have liked to have had when I started teaching. I didn't just need a book. There are tons of those, and when I first started teaching Sight Singing, I failed using a variety of books that were way out of reach for my middle school beginners.

The full method is offered on this website-27 lessons offered in Power Point with reusable, reproducible examples and all video links.